"Rivers" is the mesmerising third album by Sweden’s Wildbirds & Peacedrums, combining the two limited edition vinyl only 12" EPs, "Retina" and "Iris", which were released in May and June 2010 respectively. The album is released as a double CD in a deluxe gatefold wallet, with one EP represented on each disc.
Characteristically, Wildbirds emphasise instinct, emotional rawness and purity of expression over perfection. The whole album was recorded and mixed in Reykjavík in a single week, and retains an intentionally spontaneous, live feel. A new sense of restraint and control is apparent, compared to Wildbirds’ previous albums (2008’s "Heartcore" and 2009’s "The Snake") and their blistering live shows, consciously bringing Mariam Wallentin’s lyrical concerns into clearer focus. While the two EPs are sonically quite distinct, they complement each other with unifying themes of reflection, light and water. Heard in the context of the album, the new songs are revealed as an extraordinary body of work.
CD1 (Retina):
1. Bleed Like There Was No Other Flood
2. Tiny Holes In This World
3. Under Land And Over Sea
4. Fight For Me
5. Peeling Off The Layers
CD2 (Iris):
1. The Wave
2. The Drop
3. The Course
4. The Lake
5. The Well
This EP is great 5/5 Single Of The Month, Artrocker
W&P add massed choral grandeur to their gorgeously unsettling arsenal. Their sumptuous, understatedly eerie vocal blast W&P’s sound into the stratosphere, sounding both très moderne and as ancient as an Icelandic glacier Time Out
Wildbirds & Peacedrums music is equally hedonistic, sweet and foreboding 5/5 The Guardian
Beautifully imaginative... magnificent 8.3 Pitchfork
Seriously stripped-down and unexpectedly intoxicating The Observer
A wild trip indeed” 4/5 The Independent
Astonishing, disturbing, beautiful stuff Time Out
Like Bat for Lashes at her wildest 4/5 Q
Pretty exceptional 4/5 Mojo
